Beauty and the Gargoyle

by Tamsin Baker

  I have to go home, get changed, and get to work by nine.

  There’s a piece of paper on the marble bench top that stands out, as there is nothing else around it.

  Hi Bella!

  There’s heaps of clothes in my wardrobe if you want to borrow some for work!

  Help yourself to the fridge too.

  Roman kept me up until 4 AM, so I’ll sleep until noon.

  Chrissy

  I have more than enough time to shuffle home and get my clothes, but do I want to?

  Yes, I decide I do. I like my own space, I like my clothes, and even if I just had the best sex of my life with a man who turns into a Gargoyle during the day, I still have some sense of self.

  I get changed into my crinkled clothes from yesterday and duck out the door.

  “Good morning, ma’am.” An armed man greets me, and I jump a mile. Why hadn’t I seen him when I came in yesterday?

  “You scared me.”

  “I didn’t mean to. My apologies. I’m Bill. Head of security. And you must be Bella.”

  “I am. Ah … I need to head to work. Can you let Chrissy know that I’ve left and tell her to come over and see me later at the library?”

  He bows his head, a jagged scar on his face trisecting his jaw line catching my eye. “Yes, of course.”

  I shuffle into the elevator and begin humming as I descend to the lobby.

  The concierge smiles at me as I walk through the swanky foyer and onto the streets of New York, already buzzing with activity.

  I start my walk back to my apartment, my gaze tugging up and back towards the library roof.

  I shake my head and focus on my journey, smiling to myself as I walk. Not in ten years have I felt this happy and carefree. Amazing what one night with a grumpy, scarred man did for me.

  I make my way into my tiny apartment and have a quick shower, noting with some amusement the soreness in my hips and my female bits.

  Rafael had been an intense, beautiful lover. A little rough, too, which was strangely arousing.

  I get changed into a dress that I love but have never had the courage to wear to work. I inspect myself in the mirror as I leave, wondering why I haven’t worn it before.

  It’s black with red polka dots, covering me from the knee and up to the wrist. But the belt cinches my waist, and the neckline accentuates my full breasts.

  For a woman who loves to blend into the background, the dress will not achieve my usual goals.

  I grab a couple of pieces of fruit and get out the door again, stopping for a coffee and a Danish at my favorite small café.

  The sun shines brighter today; the air is warmer. Has something about last night changed me in some way that I wasn’t told about?

  That is an interesting question! And one I should get answered.

  I get to the library with only a few minutes to spare, unlock and check the schedule for the meeting we have for the day. I can’t help looking over at the elevator for most of my shift, wondering what Rafe is feeling, thinking.

  Chrissy said that they were still conscious in their stone forms, which would be a very hard thing to be happy about, I assume.

  They call it sleeping, but it doesn’t sound like it.

  Seems more like an induced coma.

  When my shift finishes, I notice Chrissy still hasn’t turned up. I wait by the elevators, in the meeting rooms, outside. But she doesn’t come, and I don’t have any real way to contact her.

  Maybe I should go back to the penthouse? But I don’t have a key, nor a pass to get in the elevator.

  Is something wrong?

  I check my watch. Only a few minutes before sundown.

  I push the button on the elevator, and it doesn’t light up. No noise comes from the ancient machine.

  What’s going on? Fear skitters through me, raising my heart rate.

  There’s a stairwell to the left of me, and I push it open, racing up the flights of stairs at a pounding rate that defies the heels on my feet.

  My thighs burn as I reach the third flight, but I jump to the top floor and push through the heavy metal door.

  Two darkly dressed men draw their guns on me, and I jump backwards, slamming my back against the closed metal door. I recognize the men as guards from yesterday.

  “What’s happened? Are they okay?” I ask, panting, out of breath.

  “Identify yourself,” the young, shaved head one barks at me.

  “Are they okay?” I practically yell, weaving to look around the men.

  It doesn’t look like anyone was attacking the Gargoyles, but something has definitely happened.

  “James! Stand down.” Teddy steps forward and orders them.

  The men drop their weapons, holstering them in a way that reminds me of an old western.

  “Bella. What are you doing here?” Teddy asks, frowning as though stressed.

  “I was worried. The elevator wasn’t working.”

  “Yeah, we cut the power. We’ve had a report that there was danger around, and our new procedures are a complete lockdown.”

  I relax. “Oh, thank goodness. I thought something may be wrong with Chrissy. Is she on lockdown, too?”

  Teddy’s face grows dark, and worry punches me back in the gut. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I told Bill to get Chrissy to meet me here, but she never did. And I know she sleeps until lunchtime, but it’s almost six…”

  Teddy swiveled around. “Lock the boys down. Tell Roman as soon as he wakes. I’ll take three of the men and get over to the apartment.”

  The world goes crazy as the men began running into formations of sorts, and all I want to know, is what the hell has happened?

  “Teddy, what’s going on?”

  “We haven’t locked Chrissy down.” Then he turns and runs.

  Oh fuck.

  ****

  Rafael

  I can feel Bella behind him. I can hear her beautiful voice. The sun is setting, the darkness is falling, and very soon, I will be awake and able to take my Beloved into my arms.

  I’d been so calm this morning as I took my post, no anxious belly cramps, no shaking in my shoulders and knees.

  I was strong, I was able, and it was all thanks to the Beloved who had fearlessly come to me and made me bond with her.

  The sun dips low, and the magic releases me. I push up to my feet and stretch my back, a strange, happy calm filtering through me.

  “Rafe! Quick!”

  Bella’s impassioned voice makes me jump, and she’s calling to Roman, too.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask as I stride over to her on the roof.

  “There’s something wrong with Chrissy I think. She didn’t meet me today, and the guards got some sort of warning, but I don’t know.”

  Roman’s swift intake of breath was harsh. “She could have just slept all day, but I’ll go now.”

  Considering the recent threat to our lives, we couldn’t take this lightly, but this was new. We had gone to great lengths to separate our human selves from our Gargoyles. But you never could estimate the lengths true insanity would take someone.

  “I’m right behind you, brother,” I say, smiling at my Beloved in thanks and jumping onto the architrave.

  “Take this!” Bella calls, pulling a guard forward and pressing his gun into my hand.

  I nod in thanks, my heart beating heavily in my chest. I do not want to face another band of these men, but this time, they don’t have the advantage of our sleep.

  “We’re here, brother.” Nate and Gabe stood by us, too, and as one we extend our wings and fly up to our apartment.

  We land lightly, with stealth, and I grab onto Roman’s shoulder, stopping him from charging forward as he would have.

  “Look.” I nod my head towards the ropes hanging from the roof of our building. We own the topmost penthouse and have a balcony large enough to hold a hundred people. The roof is only twenty feet above us and has no guards. Unlike our front door. Is Bill okay?

 
I shift my attention back to the scene before me.

  The apartment is deathly quiet. Are they still here, these men who’ve broken into our home at a time they knew we would be sleeping?

  “Be careful,” I whisper.

  We are immortal and heal quickly, but we have never tested our limits on bullets in human form before.

  I nod to my brothers, and we surge forward.

  All hell breaks loose. Men in black come out from behind the curtains, the couches, the kitchen. They’re holding machine guns, and they open fire.

  Bullets spray everywhere, like a silver rainfall. One cuts into my shoulder, the other into my leg.

  I lift the gun from my side and fire at their heads. One man explodes in a spray of red, the other toppling to the ground.

  Roman’s ungodly roar ripples through the apartment as he reaches one of the men and tears him apart.

  Nate and Gabe are still taking fire. So, I turn and shoot the men in their direction and keep running towards the inside of the apartment.

  Together, we mow them all down, their bodies hitting the pale carpet in a grotesque mess.

  Is that all of them? That seems too easy somehow. And where’s Chrissy?

  “Put your weapons away, demons of hell.”

  The too-calm voice chills me to the bone.

  Then we see Chrissy, her head at an odd angle as the man in full camo gear holds her beautiful red hair tightly in his fist. He is dressed differently from the others, and that makes me suspicious that the others were all simply hired guns. This is the leader.

  He holds a gun to Chrissy’s temple, and she trembles in his grasp.

  “Chrissy, are you all right, my love?” Roman calls out, and the man pulls on her hair.

  “Of course, she is. I would never harm a human stupid enough to fall for your evil seductions. But I will kill her if I have to, if you don’t do as I say. She’s human and a victim in all of this. You’re what I came for.”

  “How did you get up here?” I ask, my mind racing through all the possibilities. Where was our security?

  “Rather simple really. We’ve been monitoring you for months,” the man boasted. “I’m renting an apartment a few floors down, so getting onto the roof, abseiling down and having someone take out your security detail was easy.”

  Damn it. We’d been so focused on the library, we hadn’t even thought about our human existence.

  “What do you want?” Roman asks him.

  “All of you. Dead,” he answers.

  A shiver courses over my cold skin.

  “Why?” I can’t stop myself asking. This makes no sense. We don’t hurt anyone. We barely even talk to any humans. Sure, my brothers and I take them to our beds on occasion, but they go back to their own lives fine.

  Unlike those vampire creatures.

  “Because you are an abomination. And you all deserve to die.”

  Chrissy’s blue eyes glint with anger, and fear pulses through me. I love my brothers, and Roman would simply die without his Beloved.

  We need to get her away from that man, or she will do something herself. Having bonded with Roman, Chrissy is immortal, too, but this idiot doesn’t know that.

  Nor do we, one hundred percent. There is very little known about Beloveds of our kind, and their bulletproof bodies is definitely an unknown.

  “All right,” I agree. I am sure I could create a sufficient diversion for my brothers to get the power back here. “What do you want? I’ll walk over and let you shoot me in the head right now if that is what you truly wish.”

  And there isn’t a cell in me that is scared.

  I push any thoughts of Bella out of my head and walk forward, dropping the gun on the floor at Roman’s feet.

  Pick it up and shoot him when you can, brother.

  “Will you die?” he asks, sneering at me as his gaze runs over my damaged face.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never tried it before,” I say as I get closer. “Let Chrissy go.”

  He releases her, and she runs back into the bedroom with a cry.

  I don’t know what my brothers will do, if they will save me or not, but I am grateful that my last day on Earth was the best I ever had. I found my Beloved and kissed her lips. If I go to my grave tonight … I go with no fear, and love in my heart. Healed by my beautiful Bella.

  I kneel down in front of him, and he presses the gun to my forehead.

  Come on, Roman. Kill him.

  “Honey! What happened to Bill?”

  Bella’s voice ricochets through the room. She’s here! No! Not my Beloved. My calm control snaps.

  No way is he getting her.

  I grab his gun, pulling it to the side, just past my face. It goes off, and I pull the man to the floor, sinking my razor-sharp teeth into his neck.

  Metallic, disgusting blood spews everywhere, and then I drop him to the ground like a bag of shit.

  Yuck.

  Chrissy comes back into the room, wrench held high over her head. It falls to the ground as Roman grabs Chrissy up into his arms, wrapping her up so she is barely visible.

  Bella’s hands are on my arm, and I stand up. She flies into me, and I hold her tight.

  “I thought I’d lost you,” she whispers.

  “Never.”

  Teddy and some of the other men are filtering in now, and Roman comes over to us.

  “We need to get out of here. They know where we live.”

  I nod. “Let’s all go to the hotel where you met Rocky. You know the one. I’ll go now and reserve rooms for us all.”

  Rocky was one our elders’ minions. I mention it in code so no one hears the name of the hotel, in case the apartment is bugged.

  “Yes.”

  “Let’s go.” I take Bella by the hand and lead her out onto the balcony.

  “We’re going to fly over the city, and I’m going to take you somewhere safe.”

  She nods, her hands feverishly running over my chest and arms.

  “Hold tight to me.”

  My brothers are behind me doing whatever they need to do. I want nothing more than to get my Beloved to safety.

  I pull her into my body and wrap my arms around her.

  “Don’t let go.”

  I extend my wings and fly into the air, her breath on my cheeks, her squeal of fear in my ear.

  We land at the foot of the Radisson, and sneak behind a tree before I unwrap my wings, which keep us invisible to the world.

  She staggers away, unbalanced from the flight. I take her hand.

  “Let’s get a room. Then we’ll talk.”

  She nods, and we walk into the Radisson.

  “What about your brothers?”

  “They know where I am, and they’ll come as soon as they’ve dealt with the bodies and Chrissy’s checked over.”

  We walk up to the front desk, and I hold my trembling Beloved close.

  “I am Rafael Mansovich. I’d like four rooms, for a month. All under my name. My brothers are on their way.”

  I pull a credit card out of my back pocket, something I go nowhere without, and the concierge checks us in.

  “The penthouse, Mr. Mansovich?” the man asks, and I nod, accept the card from him, and take Bella to the elevator.

  I tap the button, and it dings open. We step inside, so I swipe the card and whisk up to the top.

  “You could have flown us to the roof quicker,” Bella giggles, her nerves now seemingly getting the better of her.

  “I could have. But it’s not as comfortable sleeping on the roof, and I can’t wait to get you into bed again.”

  I pull her close, and she snuggles into me, sighing with contentment.

  “Rafe, I…”

  “Hang on, we’re almost there.”

  I want the safety and quiet of our room to discuss what she needs to talk about. There are many plans that will need to be put into place now. These …. Gargoyle haters need to be stopped.

  The elevator dings open, and we step out, slide the card over the
electronic plate and step into the biggest apartment the Radisson has to offer.

  “Come on, beautiful.”

  I pull her into the bedroom, strip her of her clothes, and slide her beneath the covers.

  “Oh! The sheets are cold.” She shivers, pulling them tighter around her.

  I laugh and push my clothes off, climbing onto the cool mattress with her.

  “It’s fine. Come here.” I pull Bella onto my chest and wrap my arms around her shivering body.

  Eventually, her breathing slows down, and she stops shaking.

  “I was so scared, Rafe. I started the day all happy and full of questions. But when I knew you were in danger, and Chrissy—I didn’t care about any of the answers I needed. I just wanted you back and safe.”

  Her voice trembles with her words, and I wish I could wipe the fear away.

  “I know, my beautiful Beloved. You really are perfect for me.”

  And she is. Smart, sassy, and super sweet.

  “But I will still answer all your questions, and please don’t be scared. We are linked, destined to be. I will love you, take care of you, worship you.”

  “And never leave me?” she asks, her voice strangely thick with emotion.

  “Is that what you’re afraid of?”

  She nods her head against my chest, and I stroke her long hair.

  “Till death do us part,” I joke. “And for us, that could be a thousand years from now, so I hope you don’t get sick of me anytime soon.”

  “How could I get sick of you when, within twenty-four hours of knowing you, my whole world has been turned upside down? You certainly know how to keep life interesting.”

  I chuckle, and she looks up, her eyes filled with tears.

  “Seriously though. Those men need to be stopped. What happened tonight can’t happen again, Rafael. It was terrible.”

  I nod. “I totally agree. And when Roman and my brothers arrive, we will have to think up a strategy for them. Roman has been doing all he can since that first attack, but there’s obviously some holes in his planning.”

  “Well, they didn’t attack you in Gargoyle form this time. So obviously the library is safer now. It’s such a shame you can’t change location. It would be so much easier to hide you if we could move you.”

  I sigh and lie back against the pillows. “I know. I wish we could. The library has been much safer with the double security. But they know who we are now, and they obviously watch us. They knew where we lived. They knew about Chrissy. We can’t let them use our Beloveds against us.”